Numbers Do Lie Occasionally

"A feel for the game and the timing of things and the momentum of things are far more important than statistical data." - Kobe Bryant, in the May/June 2012 issue of SLAM magazine

After the Lakers lost a 7 point lead late in the 4th quarter in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night, many people had questions. One question that emerged was "Is Kobe Clutch?," and it was asked on ESPN Outside the Lines yesterday afternoon. OK, I may sound a little biased here, but here it goes: You can throw at me all the advanced stats and percentages you want, you can tell me, "See, these numbers prove Kobe is overrated in the clutch! or LeBron is actually better in the clutch based on these percentages!" all you want, but guess what? I still won't give a shit. To me, you cannot boil clutch play down to percentages or figures. It cannot be measured simply by shooting percentages or advanced math. The reason you cannot just go by percentages or advanced statistics, at least in my view, is that contrary to belief, the numbers and stats do lie occasionally. Clutch is an intangible factor that you either have or you don't. Much as I dislike Skip Bayless, I do agree with him on this thing: you either have a clutch gene or you don't. As much as people doubted Kobe Bean Bryant after Wednesday, he still has it.

Despite all my rambling about how I think stats can be overrated, there are two statistics that jumped out at me, that I view to be far more important than the percentages thrown out there:

Most game-winners in the last 5 seconds of the 4th/OT (since 1996-97, Kobe's rookie year):

Kobe Bryant- 16
Carmelo Anthony- 14
Ray Allen- 12
Vince Carter- 11

And, most game winners in the final 10 seconds since 1996: Kobe leads the NBA with 21.

Source: Lakers